Sword Art Online - USA Server
by MrScarySauce
Summary: The game of the century, Sword Art Online has finally been released world wide. "Game of the century" isn't really the right way to explain it though. More like Death game. Will we be able to make it out alive?
1. Prologue

\- Prologue -

I finally got the call. I've been waiting YEARS for this call. DECADES! Ok, I've only been waiting a few months, but that's not the point.

My best friend Eddie has been beta testing this new game called Sword Art Online. It's a VRMMORPG, which stands for: Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. That's right. Virtual...Reality. It's ran on the new NerveGear hardware which I've had on backorder for the last 6 months. Well, guess who just got a call from NerveGear? That's right. This guy. And it couldn't have come at a better time. In three days, they'll finally be releasing Sword Art Online: Aincrad. And better yet, I'll be playing side by side with a beta tester.


	2. Chapter One

\- Chapter One -

I spent the entire next day setting up the NerveGear. Of course there were little mini games it used to calibrate your 5 senses but before you even got the chance to dive into it, they made you touch almost every inch of your body. After that, the headset scanned your face and asked you say a ridiculously long phrase before telling you to lay down in a comfortable position. "Now we're getting somewhere." I thought, laying down on my king size memory foam mattress.

The next day I brought it and my copy of SAO over to Eddie's house. I couldn't jump in and play it yet, but I could spectate on his final day of playing before the release. We downed a few redbulls and hopped in.

A few hours later, I had a decent idea of not only how to play but what I wanted to play as.

Eddie, being the 5' 6" Mexican ninja he is, chose to stay moderately close to his own size in the game and play as an assassin. Me, being 6' 2" tall, you'd think I'd go for playing as a tank. You'd also be wrong. I'm going to be a beast tamer! Not only that, but they have bows in this game! How fucking cool is that?

I also get to choose from one of five beast choices. Some sort of sabre cat, which had the fastest speed but mediocre defense and attack; A direwolf which had an attack boost during night time; A monster of a turtle with maxed out defense; A dragon that dealt extra fire damage; And my personal favorite, the gryphon. It had very decent skills, but its aerial attacks gave an extra 20% damage if it landed a critical hit. Oh yeah. This bird was mine.

I headed home after a couple more hours of watching Eddie and got ready. He was going to come over to my place around noon, eat some lunch then we're both going to dive in for 1 p.m. when the release hits.


	3. Chapter Two

\- Chapter Two -

I could barely sleep that night. Anticipation kept me up until well after midnight thinking about all of the possibilities and experiences we'll be having. Being transported basically to a new world, discovering new adventures and seeing things I've never seen before. I was already hooked on it and I still had 12 hours until I could experience it, so I forced myself to sleep.

It didn't last long. One of my daughters woke me and my wife up at 7 that next morning and for the first time, I wasn't pissed about it. My wife on the other hand was still hesitant. I reassured her nothing about the console could harm us. There are apparently very strict safety guidelines the manufacturer had to meet before it could be publicly sold. And the fact that she could use any computer to get in touch with me while I was playing helped ease her mind, A LITTLE. Either way, her only wish was that Eddie and I would start the game at our house so she could keep an eye on us. I agreed, of course.

Eddie showed up at 11 to eat some burgers I made on the grill, but mostly because there was live coverage on tv about the game and a plethora of game talk shows were doing nothing but talking about SAO leading up to it's release.

"The developer apparently changed everything for the new release, so none of the maps should be the same as the beta." Eddie said before chomping down his last bite of burger.

"That's fair." I replied, but I could see the frustration on Eddie's face.

"Do you know how much grinding I had to do to memorize those damn maps!? I think it's bullshit!" He retorted, clearly aggravated that ALL of the work he and the other beta testers did was basically for nothing. "I can't be too mad though." He continued, "The way the developer made it sound, it's gonna be worth it."

I nodded. "Yeah, cuz you'll have me to come save your ass now." I joked, causing us both to bust out laughing.

"It's 12:45!" I heard my wife yell from inside. Eddie and I looked at each other with ear to ear grins. "Alright, thanks babe!" I yelled back. "One more joe before we log on?" I asked Eddie, pointing towards the cigarettes.

"Might as well. No telling how long we're going to be on for." Eddie replied.

Somehow, this cigarette tasted better than the last. Like it was telling me what I'm going to be missing while I'm in there playing SAO. Yes, I have a very bad addiction to cigarettes and redbull. Sue me.

We each put out our cigarettes and headed inside. "Some people are saying that Japanese billionaire, Akihiko Kayaba, the man who developed the Nervegear and Sword Art Online will be playing today as well." A voice said on the tv. "No shit! Kayaba is playing too!?" Eddie said excitedly. "He probably won't be playing on the American server though." I replied. "Yeah, that'd still be cool as fuck to meet him though." "Eddie! Language!" My wife yelled from across the room, pointing towards my three kids sitting at the table eating. "Sorry…"

It's now 12:59. All game tv stations were freaking out at this point. The game of the century was less than a minute away from releasing. Me and Eddie were now set up in my living room. He was on the couch putting his headgear on and laying back and I opted for the recliner. It's directly below an AC vent, so I get a little extra comfort. "30 seconds guys!" My wife yelled, pointing at the tv. Eddie and I looked at each other. "I'll see you on the other side." I said, smiling and pointing a finger towards him. We both laughed and laid our heads back. My wife came and gave me a kiss. "I love you babe." I said, holding her hand. "I love you too." She replied, and pointed to the tv. 10 seconds.

This is it. The moment I've been waiting MONTHS for. Just then, as if in unison we both yelled, "LINK START!"


	4. Chapter Three

\- Chapter Three -

It was like being sucked into a vaccuum of color. Red, green, blue and white lines raced past me going millions of miles per hour. A checklist formed on my right checking all 5 of my senses. Then in an instant, I was standing on a platform with Aincrad in the background. (WELCOME) shown across the screen with a log in button below it. I pressed it and began my character creation.

I decided to make my character as close to my height as possible like Eddie. It just seemed easier.

There were definitely going to be some differences though. I'm only 28, but I'm severely balding. So the FIRST thing I did was give myself a giant full head of hair. Why? Because fuck you, that's why.

Next was my facial features. I honestly didn't care too much about that so I hit the random button about 7 times and picked it.

Now on to my favorite part. Picking my class and subclass. Of course my main class was going to be a beast tamer, and I immediately picked the gryphon. Just then, it asked me what I wanted to name my familiar...

"I haven't thought of a name yet! Damn it! I suck at names!" I yelled, seemingly at no one. I started looking around for hints of what to call him, but that didn't work at all. I was drawing a blank at this point. So I started to think of my old pets and trying to incorporate my new friend into it. "Sampson!" I yelled in excitement. That was the name of one of my old horses IRL. He was a giant clydesdale and was one of my best friends growing up. It only fit that my new mount would be named after him. I typed his name in and hit accept. On to the subclass.

I've always loved dabbling into blacksmithing in every other game I played. Something about making the weapons I used in battle excited me, so that's what I picked.

I clicked the done button and another screen popped up, "Finish and Name Character". Oh God. Now I have to come up with a screen name. I've always used MrScarySauce as a screen name, but somehow I knew that wouldn't fit this game. I needed something catchy. Something medieval even. Maybe Greek? Zeus? No, I'm too fat to be Zeus. Wait, Fat Zeus! No…PHAT ZEUS!

Absolutely. This will forever be my SAO name for as long as I play this game. I typed it in and hit "Start".


	5. Chapter Four

\- Chapter Four -

My body turned into blue fragments and I was instantly transported to a cathedral.

I opened my eyes and was absolutely astonished with the view. Mountains surrounded the city on nearly all sides with a giant open field and trails leading to another town. Birds were sitting on rooftops chirping, and I could literally smell how clean this new world was. Different shops lined a street next to the cathedral, so I made my way to the first Weapon shop I saw. This was supposed to be where Eddie and I were going to meet up, but I didn't see anyone that looked like his old avatar. Either way, his screen name is Ronin so I just started looking for that.

I didn't get far when I heard his voice trying to barter with one of the NPC's.

"Come on man, I only have 1,000 col. Can you cut me a deal?" He pleaded.

"Well, since you're spending so much, I'll let it go for 900 col." The shop keeper said, and Eddie almost jumped in joy. "But send your friends my way!" He yelled as Eddie turned around to leave.

"Going grinding without me, Ronin?" I said, giving him a smile.

"Phat Zeus? Are you fucking serious?" He asked, then busted out in laughter almost stopping the immense foot traffic going on in the street.

"Yeah, yeah. Keep it up and I'll let Sampson take a bite out of your ass." I replied, getting a weird look from him.

"Who's Sampson?" He asked. Then it dawned on him. "Well at least your gryphon has a decent name."

We both laughed. "Whatever. I need some weapons." I replied, walking into the shop.

There was a plethora of weapons covering every inch of the walls and tables. Everything ranging from samurai swords, short swords, long swords, knives, bows, war hammers, battle axes, shields, armor and even starter sets that come with different healing potions and warp crystals. Now, my original plan was becoming an archer. But unlike Ronin, I'm not splurging all of my money on one weapon. Even though the katana he got was pretty badass.

I made my way around to the bows, pleasantly surprised that he had a huge selection. But not so pleasantly surprised that EVERY bow worth a shit was out of my price range. "Guess Ima have to wait on a bow." I thought, so I moved on to the two handed section.

I've always loved long swords, even though I lean towards a stealth archer in most games. But if you can get your strength and agility maxed out, you're unstoppable. So I started looking.

There weren't many decent swords in my price range, so I picked a generic "Iron Sabre" and a few health potions. I thought about spending the majority of my last 100 col on a warp crystal, but I'm a cheap ass that has to have at least SOME money on me, so I decided to leave with the haul I had before putting myself in debt.

"Send your friends my way!" The shop keeper yelled as we left, heading towards our first battleground.


	6. Chapter Five

\- Chapter Five -

The beginning stages of wielding a long sword kinda suck. But, it has it's advantages. We were in a field a few hundred yards outside of The Town of Beginnings when we encountered our first fight.

A few boars were roaming around the field so Ronin decided to try out his newly acquired katana. He rose it to his shoulder and it instantly started glowing red. Flashing forward, he hit it with a seven hit combo, exploding it into a million blue shards.

"Beta tester" I scoffed at him, joking about his previous experience. That's when two more boar approached. "I got these." I snarled. Taking out my massive Iron Sabre, I finally felt exactly how heavy it was to swing. A few practice swings later, I started walking towards the swine duo.

I got within 20 yards before they even noticed me. "These things must be the lowest level in this game." I thought to myself.

As if to prove me wrong, both boars charged me at the same time. I barely had time to react when the first one hit me. Ronin let out a laugh from across the field that did nothing but piss me off. I kicked the nearest boar in the nose and brought my giant sword down into the back of its head. It exploded into blue shards. "Wow, one hit?" I grinned.

I charged the second boar and swung my sword as hard as I could into its side. It's health dropped to barely a sliver of red. That's when a small knife came flying out of nowhere and lodged itself into one of the boar's eyes, taking the rest of its health. It also turned into blue shards and the knife fell to the ground.

"What the fuck!?" I yelled and turned to Ronin.

"You didn't think I only had one weapon did you?" He said, approaching with a smile and picking up his knife. He continued, "I got an extra 500 col for being a beta tester so I bought a set of throwing knives before I saw this bad boy." He pointed towards his katana.

I glared at him, mostly because he took my last kill but I was also extremely jealous that he got 1500 col. I mean, I could've got a pretty decent bow with that much!

That made me think about the Iron Sabre I bought though. It just took out two boars with almost a single hit each. I probably would've had to shoot at least five arrows at each of them to do that.

Ronin spoke up, "Come on. Let's hit up the next field and grind some more. You can't use your familiar until you hit level two."

"Holy shit, you're right!" I replied and followed him back to the path.

I was so immersed into the game that I completely forgot about Sampson. "Don't worry little buddy," I said to myself, but before I could say anything else a loud bell sounded and Ronin instantly turned into blue shards. I freaked out grabbing for him, then I was transported back to the cathedral right next to him and the almost 25,000 other players.


	7. Chapter Six

\- Chapter Six -

A small warning message hovered above the cathedral, then was surrounded by more warning signs quickly engulfing the entire area around it. Blood seemed to ooze from between the warning signs directly above us and gather itself in a giant ball above the crowd. Some people were screaming, some were cheering. I, was freaking the fuck out.

The giant blood clot started to form into a human figure. Almost instantly, it turned into what I think was a hooded priest's robe with skeletal arms and legs. The darkness under its hood kept us from seeing it's face, but I could only imagine a skull was all that was there.

It opened its giant arms and started to speak, "Attention players! Welcome…to MY world!"

"What in the actual FUCK is happening!?" I asked no one in particular. Ronin replied, "I think we're about to find out..."

The skeleton priest continued, "My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment I am in control of this world."

The crowd grew instantly silent. Kayaba started talking again, mentioning something missing from the main menu. All 25,000 people opened their menu in unison.

"What the fuck!? Where's the log out button!?" Someone screamed, which prompted an immediate uproar from the surrounding players.

"I assure you this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

I looked over to Ronin with probably the most scared look I've ever worn. "He's fucking lying right?" I asked, but he never took his eyes off of Kayaba.

He then explained that if anyone in the outside world tried removing or shutting down the Nervegear, a transmitter inside of it will send a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain, thus ending your life.

"You're lying!"

"You can't do this!"

"I have a family! Please!"

The crowd was starting to get violent.

Kayaba continued, "Despite my warning, the family and friends of some of the players attempted removing the NerveGear." Multiple screens surrounded him showing news feeds from around the country with titles like, "Death game" and "Thousands trapped in new VR game".

"This resulted in the death of 1,240 players. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." Kayaba said, pointing towards a news feed saying, "Death toll rises to over 1,200."

He continued, "If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system, forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain. There's only one way for a player to escape now. You must clear the game."

I saw Ronin tense in the corner of my eye. He finally looked over to me, "It took me two months to get to floor 8." He said, trembling.

Kayaba started to explain how were on floor 1, and to complete the game we'd have to beat the boss on floor 100. Ronin almost fell to his knees. I actually did. I have a wife and three kids IRL. Images of them started flashing through my head as my virtual tear ducts started forming artificial tears.

"Last but not least, I placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look."

I don't think I've ever moved so fast. I opened my inventory and saw...a mirror? I clicked it, and it materialized into my hand. Ronin started shining in a bright white light, along with everyone else in the cathedral. Then, it engulfed me.

I turned to check on Ronin, but it was Eddie! I looked in the mirror and saw my actual face staring back at me. At this point, I was done listening to that asshole and wanted to get the fuck out of here. Kayaba was rambling on about how he wanted to create his own world or some bullshit.

"So this mother fucker wants to play God?" I asked, now clearly livid at the realization.

"This marks the end of the tutorial and the official start of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." Kayaba then started disappearing back into the warning signs, and a moment later they were all gone leaving us with the spectacular view of the mountains surrounding the city again.

Everyone in the crowd was frozen. Shock embedded on their faces. Ronin nudged my arm and we took off into the city before the cathedral turned into the impending cluster fuck it was liable to turn into with over 20,000 pissed off players crowded into one place.


	8. Chapter Seven

\- Chapter Seven -

We ran through the Town of Beginnings as fast as we could. Right when we got to the edge of the city, I got a message from Mindy, my wife. I yelled for Ronin to stop and I read it. It consisted of the usual scowling me for being so stupid and telling me if I don't make it out alive, she'll resurrect me and kill me again.

I wrote her back, telling her how much I love her and the kids. And that I PROMISE to make it home to them. I can only imagine how devastated she is. Her next message both broke my heart and gave me hope. She told me my older brother Carey was also trapped in the game.

I turned to Ronin, he could clearly see the worry on my face. "What happened?" He asked. "We've gotta find Carey." I replied. A collective, "Awe fuck" was said. I messaged Mindy back to tell her to get in touch with him and ask his location. She immediately messaged back that she already did and he was in the first town to the west of us. I told her that I would keep her updated and we took off into the field heading west.

After demolishing a couple dire wolves, I got a "Level Up" notification saying I was now level 2. Remembering Sampson this time, I stopped Ronin and opened my inventory. After a few seconds of scrolling, I saw it.

(Sampson's egg)

I pressed it and it materialized on the ground. I touched the now vibrating egg and it cracked. A sharp talon protruded from the egg shell, then the shell exploded into blue shards leaving a small gryphon laying on the ground.

"Sampson - Level 1" displayed above it with a health bar. I lowered my hand to it...It screamed and launched itself straight up into the air. We watched it fly around for a few seconds before it landed on my shoulder. It's sharp talons somehow not puncturing my armor, thank God.

It easily surpassed my expectations of what I thought a gryphon would be. A small lion body with giant eagle wings and surprisingly, a bald eagle's head. "Shoulda named you Murica" I joked, getting a chuckle from Ronin.

It laid across both of my shoulders as if falling asleep with its head resting on the handle of my sword. I felt the heat coming from its feathers on my neck and it somehow comforted me.

"You look happier than a pig in shit." Ronin joked.

"Yeah, yeah. Carey must have taken off before we did or just ran past everything. I don't know how he got to that town before us." I replied as we got back on the trail. "Either way, I'm glad we're not alone in this game."


	9. Chapter Eight

\- Chapter Eight -

We arrived at the town a few minutes later. Sampson was still perched on my shoulder and Ronin had his katana out practicing sword skills.

I managed to rack up another 1350 col on the way so I was definitely hitting up the blacksmith after we found Carey.

"They just let anyone in this town I guess." Came a voice from... above us? We both looked up to see Carey on the balcony of one of the shops.

I couldn't hold my laughter in. He literally looked like Robin hood. Green tights, feather hat, everything.

In almost an instant, he appeared downstairs walking out the door. "Took you fags long enough." He said walking up and grabbed us both in a bro hug. He continued, "I was hoping you guys didn't log in when that asshole started talking."

"I didn't even know you had a NerveGear, much less SAO." I replied. "Do you know if anyone else we know is trapped in here?"

"Nah. My girlfriend Ami was supposed to log on with me but she had to work late today, THANK GOD! So when she heard everyone was stuck in here, she messaged me. I told her to call you guys. That's when I got Mindy's message."

I nodded and looked up at his name.

(Pzark Ranger)

"Of course." I thought, smiling. He kept his Playstation screen name.

"How the hell did you get here so fast?" I asked.

He grinned. "I was a beta tester."

"You sons uh bitches!" I yelled. "So I guess that's how you managed to afford that bow on your back?"

"Spent 1200 shams on this bad boy." He replied, taking the bow off his back and drawing it. A glowing arrow appeared between his hands. He slowly eased the bows tension and the arrow disappeared. "You can make fun of my outfit all you want, but you're stuck with that name...Phat Zeus" He and Ronin both busting out in laughter.

"I'd rather be a fat Greek God than a gay archer." I fired back, but neither of them were listening anymore. They were both staring at a pair of twins walking down the street.

They had shoulder length brunette hair, and faces as if made out of porcelain. Both dressed in the same armor with the same katana sheathed on their backs. After sharing a look at us, they disappeared into a shop.

Carey spoke up, "DAYUM!" He and Ronin both laughed again.

"Pick your jaws up off the floor. I need to find a blacksmith." I said, pushing them down the street. As we passed the shop the twins were in, Ronin spoke up. "Found your blacksmith." He said, smiling.

"They apparently had the same idea as me." I said, "Don't make an ass out of yourselves."

They both chuckled again and we entered the blacksmith.


	10. Chapter Nine

\- Chapter Nine -

The twins were towards the back of the shop looking at shields when we entered. Ronin, being the only single one of us, made a B-line towards them.

"This should be good." I muttered.

While Ronin was off trying to score, I approached the blacksmith. He was a gruff looking old man with arms the size of tree trunks and a beard that stretched down to his pant line.

"What can I do for you young man?" He asked with a deep baritone voice.

"I'm looking for a ranged weapon." I replied. I could technically afford a bow with 1450 col, but Carey is our archer now so I'm going to focus on two handed. But I definitely need some kind of ranged weapon. "Do you have anything other than a bow or throwing knives?" I asked.

He smiled. "I have something in mind." He then reached under the counter and retrieved a hatchet. It was black with a single red gem on each side of the blade. Then, he walked over to a weapon rack, grabbed a stubby double sided axe and set in on the table. "And just incase you changed you're mind..." he said then he put a double edged throwing knife down next to the others.

The hatchet was really the only one that caught my attention. I pressed it and looked at the details. It dealt OK damage, but the best part was the price. 450 col. It had the shortest throw distance but it was tied with the axe for damage and to my delight, costs less. The throwing knife had twice the distance and was the same price as the hatchet, but did half the damage.

I tapped on the hatchet again and pressed buy. "Pleasure doing business." The blacksmith said, and I nodded in agreement. Now, with my newly acquired throwing hatchet, I turned to see Ronin and Parks (that's what we call Carey) standing with the twins. All four were just staring at me like I was taking my sweet time.

I walked up to them after equipping the hatchet and it appeared sheathed on my belt. I can only imagine how weird I looked. Giant sword, tiny hatchet, sleeping gryphon on my shoulders…fuck it.

"You must be Fat Jesus." One of the twins said with a smile. They all busted out laughing. Parks was on the ground almost in tears laughing when she said, "You owe me 20 col." After a minute of laughing, he got up and said, "Best 20 bucks I ever spent." And hit send.

"Fucking...hilarious." I scowled. The other twin came over and hugged me. "Don't mind her. She's an asshole. I'm Al…Firefly. And this.." pointing to her sister, "is Cherry Potter." Cherry finally stopped laughing and waved to me.

"Well now that we've gotten through introductions..." I glared at Parks, "What's up?"

Cherry spoke up, "I was just joking, ya know..."

I smiled and waved her off, "I'm used to it by now. Parks is my big brother and I've been knowing Ronin my whole life."

Parks spoke up this time, "Older brother. You got 3 inches and 150 lbs on me." Pointing out that I'm not only taller, but much bigger than him.

"Those 3 inches aren't from height either." I joked, and now everyone was laughing at him. He did his regular mocking laugh and finally shut up.

"We were wondering if you guys wanted to join us." Firefly said. "Parks and Ronin are cool with it if you are..."

"I'm not the leader of this merry gang of misfits." I joked. "But yeah, I'm down."

Cherry jumped up with joy and grabbed Ronin's arm, hugging it. He winked at me with a smile. I wonder if you can score in this game?


	11. Chapter Ten

\- Chapter Ten -

A few hours later we were grinding in a forest. Ronin, Parks and I just made it to level 4 but somehow Cherry and Firefly were already level 5. And honestly, I could tell why. They fought almost in unison. Like they were one player with four arms. We just stayed back and watched them take on a giant bear and what looked like its 3 cubs. By themselves. It was pretty hot, not gonna lie.

Parks spoke up when they were done. "So are we a guild or something now?" The question caught us off guard. We all joined the same party but I completely forgot you could join guilds.

Cherry replied first, "Ohhh! We can be the Cherryflies!"

I'm pretty sure you could hear virtual crickets because of how quiet everyone was.

"Or not…" she frowned.

"It takes 10,000 col to make a guild." Ronin said. "Anyone here have that?"

I was just hitting 3,000. Pretty sure Ronin had a little more than that. No telling how much Parks had.

"We kinda spent all our money on armor and these…" Firefly replied, touching her katana.

"I have 3,000." I said. Then Ronin replied, "I have 4,500." The twins both had just over 2,000 each. Then everyone looked at Parks. "I have 8,200..." he said, grinning with his chest out.

"If everyone pitches in half of their col, we should almost have enough." I mentioned. "Anyone have a problem with that?"

No one objected, so we started our walk back to the Town of Beginnings.

We each racked up about another 1,000 col on the way back, so no one was really hurting for cash when we got to the guild building.

On the walk back, we started trying to come up with a guild name. Literally nothing that we came up with was worth a shit, so we were sitting outside the building arguing about it.

"I still like Cherryflies!" Cherry yelled.

"Not happening!" We all yelled back.

"The Twin Gryphons?" I asked.

Everyone went silent and stared at me. "What?" I asked.

Ronin chimed in, "That's not too bad. But saying 'the twin somethings' implies there are only two of us."

We all nodded in agreement.

"The Twin Gryphon Alliance." Firefly timidly said, and I suddenly felt all fuzzy inside.

Parks yelled, "FUCK YEAH!" along with smiles and nods from the rest of us.

10 minutes and 10,000 col later, we were now known as: The Twin Gryphon Alliance. And for an extra 100 col, we made banners for the group and got an added option to make our own custom armor. The armor design can wait until I raise my blacksmithing skill, but the banner was easy. It was a black banner with a gold outline. Two gold gryphon's faced right and left just above center, each with red eyes. The guild name stitched under them in gold.

I felt somewhat complete. We may only be on the first floor, but for the first time since I found out we were trapped here, I felt like we might make it.

We went to a restaurant to celebrate, and I got caught up watching everyone having fun. Parks had two bottles of ale, drinking out of both of them at the same time. Ronin had Cherry in his arms, passionately making out with her. Firefly was trying to take one of the bottles out of Park's hands. Failing, of course, because she had already reached her limit.

I walked outside to message my wife and update her. I told her about how we found Carey, and about Sampson. I told her how we met the twins and how Ronin was starting to fall for Cherry. He won't admit it, but I know him better than he knows himself.

She sent me an extremely long, heartfelt message back. It almost broke me to realize that I'm basically laying next to her in a hospital bed IRL, but I couldn't feel further away. It was probably the ale in my virtual system, but I was very emotional that night.

We all wobbled out of the restaurant a few hours later, slowly making our way to an Inn and falling in our respective beds.


	12. Chapter Eleven

\- Chapter Eleven -

It's now been four days. Four days of literally fighting to stay alive. There have been rumors going around that another guild found a dungeon on the north side of floor one with a chamber deep in the back that no one has been able to get to. Speculations say it's the boss room, but there have been two other false alarms in the past couple of days so I'm not going to get my hopes up. Everyone thinks this is the one because the monsters are all level 15-20 and hardly anyone is at that level yet. Parks and I are both level 13, Ronin is level 14 and the twins lost their leveling streak at 12. I personally think it's because Cherry's head is stuck so far up Ronin's ass that she can't think straight, but she swears that's not the case. Either way, it's none of my business. They both seem happy.

Sampson has grown to level 10, and by grown I mean he doesn't fit on my shoulders anymore. He now walks beside me like a guard dog, but I wouldn't call him that if I were you. His talons are at least 4 inches long now.

Ronin learned a new, VERY useful skill called Shadow Walk. He can literally disappear into his own shadow and reappear in any shadow within 20 yards and he's been using the FUCK out of it. He's constantly not only getting the First Hit bonuses from shadow walking to the monster first, but also the Last Hit bonuses as well most of the time. Now you know why he's a higher level. The dude's a savage.

Parks has become the sharpshooter from hell with his new bow. If he can see you, he can put at least 3 arrows in you every second. He also got a new perk: Eagle eye. It allows him to zoom in his vision up to 5x for five seconds. I've personally seen him shoot a bird out of a tree from 100 yards. He's earned his new alias, The Hammer Of God. Oh, and he finally got rid of the Robin hood outfit after the 20,000th time I called him and Ronin 'Batman and Robin of Loxley'. I guess he didn't appreciate my Men In Tights reference. Oh well.

He, and everyone else in the guild for that matter, got new armor courtesy of me. My blacksmithing perk finally paid off and I made the entire guild their custom armor. Black iron with gold trim, a gryphon head on each shoulder and our banner on the chest. The hardest part was acquiring the rubies for the eyes, but it was SO worth it. And I can also upgrade weapons now. My Iron Sabre has been upgraded to level 3 (higher than everyone else's) and is now called The Gryphon. Yes, I named it. Yes, there is a gryphon head on the handle right before the blade. Sue me. It's fucking badass. I upgraded it with the same black iron, gold and rubies I used for the armor. And the best part is my blacksmithing is also drastically improving my strength and agility. I can now swing The Gryphon as fast as anyone with a one handed sword or katana. Except Ronin...

The twins actually both got unique skills: Dual Midnight Blades. Apparently if you kill 500 monsters, in a row, with both of you landing at least one hit, you get a unique skill. Impressive? Yes. Excessive? Absolutely. But they're also slacking. Cherry may be stuck up Ronin's ass, but Firefly has been having her own problems as well. She's the only one of the twins with a child. A 6 month old. And I'm almost 100% positive she's going through post partum depression. She's constantly falling behind us on the hunting grounds, curled up in a ball crying. I hear her throughout the night crying herself to sleep. Now, I've had very bad separation anxiety from my family since we found out we're stuck in here. But she's a new mom. I can't imagine what she's going through. So we just try to fight it together as best as we can.


	13. Chapter Twelve

\- Chapter Twelve -

We all got up on the fourth day and walked to the guild building. A few of the larger guilds asked us to liaison on a meeting involving the dungeon they found possibly holding the floor one boss. A lot of the other guilds have one person they dub as the leader. We don't follow those guidelines. Everything The Twin Gryphon Alliance does is unanimous. Everyone has a say so.

We showed up 15 minutes early. Thad, the level 15 leader of the tank guild 'Withered Iron', was sitting outside of the building. His guild consists of 12 tank class guys, all decked out with heavy armor and shields. Literally the go to guild when you need to rush a dungeon without losing anyone. We knew him from one of the quests he helped us with on the second day.

He stood up as we approached and shook my hand. I may be a big guy, but he literally towers over me. 6' 7" and could easily be a stunt double for Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.

He greeted everyone and turned back to me, "Just the man I wanted to see." He said with a grin.

"Uh oh…"

"What's your blacksmith skill up to?" He asked.

"Level 5. What you got in mind?" I replied hesitantly.

"I'm looking for a battle axe. Starting to get tired of the old sword and shield and I can't find a decent one in any of the shops around here."

I was almost in shock when I replied. "You don't want to be a tank anymore!? What about your guild?"

He chuckled, "You don't have to be a tank to be in Withered Iron." One of his guild members walked up as he was talking, "Gojira here," he pointed towards his approaching friend, "Took up the bow yesterday. So you could say we're broadening our horizons."

I started nodding. "Sounds good to me. We can talk about it after the meeting."

He smiled, grabbed my shoulder and leaned in to whisper, "you think you can hook me up with Firefly?" nodding his head in her direction.

I almost laughed out loud, "You'd break that poor girl in half." We both broke out in uncontrollable laughter and started walking into the building.

You were only permitted 5 members of your guild to attend a guild meeting. This happened to work out perfectly for us because we only had 5 members. This kept the room from getting over crowded because there were only 30 chairs at the table.

Thad sat down at the table next to us with his right hand man, Gojira.

Another man, who I'd never met before, walked in accompanied by four almost identical guys dressed in the same armor. All five of them had bows attached to their backs. The leader made it a point to sit at the very end of the table, as if he were leading the meeting with his guild members sitting to his right and left.

"Ahhh." I said, leaning over to Parks and Ronin. "I've heard of those guys. I don't know their guild name but they apparently only recruit archers."

Parks chuckled. "I'd out-shoot every one of those assholes." He said, staring at their apparent leader.

Just then, two more guild leaders walked into the room. I recognized one of them immediately. Long blonde hair, an almost perfect beard and a one handed war hammer sheathed to his side. And yes, just in case you were wondering, his name was Thor. He's level 14 and the guild leader of Valhalla, and he's also a raging prick. He shook hands with the archers and sat at the table next to them.

I haven't met the woman he was walking with though. She had short black hair in a ponytail, dark grey heavy armor and a wicked two handed battle axe. Not to mention she was smoking hot.

I don't really know if it was intentional, but she walked right past the lead archer without even acknowledging him and sat completely on the other side of the table.

Firefly learned over to Thad, "I'm sensing some tension between them two."

"Milo is a piece of shit that almost got her entire guild killed." He replied.

Firefly gasped.

I chuckled, "Milo? Really?"

Parks replied, "Shut up, Fat Jesus." And everyone started chuckling.

We watched the other members of everyone's guilds fill the rest of the seats and it seemed the meeting was about to start.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

\- Chapter Thirteen -

"Good morning everyone." Milo started. "I see some new faces. Can we start with introductions?"

The woman at the other end of the table spoke up. "Let's start with you." She said, giving him one hell of a devilish look.

Milo stood and stared at her for a few seconds before speaking. "I am Milo Glass of Aeroguard, and I am the one who asked you all here for this meeting." He sat back down.

Thor stood up next. "I am Thor of Valhalla." He said, proudly with his fist over his chest.

Parks joked, "I thought Thor was from Asgard?" That got him a very nasty look from Thor as he sat back down, but small chuckles from everyone else. Then Thad stood up.

"I'm Thaddeus…" His baritone voice stopped all lingering laughter. He continued, "and this is Gojira. We're from Withered Iron." He sat back down.

We were next, but none of us stood. That made literally everyone stare at us. "I guess we all stand." I said, so we all stood up.

"We are The Twin Gryphon Alliance." I said, getting strange looks from most of the people in the room. I started pointing everyone out, "This is Cherry Potter, Firefly, Ronin, Pzark Ranger and I'm Phat Zeus." That got a few chuckles.

"The guild leader is the only one that needs to stand during introductions." Milo basically spat out.

Parks spoke up. "We don't need a guild leader, fuckboy."

Milo instantly had the expression as if we all just threw turds at him.

"Thanks anyways." I added with a smile, then we all sat down getting smiles and nods from some of the other guild leaders.

That's when the woman sitting opposite of Milo stood up. "And I…" she stared menacingly at him, "am Freya of The War Maidens." She continued to stand for a few seconds more, staring at Milo, then sat down.

"Let's get down to business then..." Milo said. "My guild thinks we've found the floor one boss room."

Some of the other guild members started whispering to each other.

"Is this anything like the last two times you said that? Or are you 100% sure this time?" Voiced Thad, mentioning that this is the third time Milo thought his guild found the boss room.

"I've already dealt with those in my guild who cried wolf. I can assure you this is the boss room." Milo replied with a slight smile.

I spoke up, "Are you sure it isn't just a quest?" That got a few nods from around the table.

Freya looked at me this time with an evil smile.

Milo scoffed and waved me off. "There are no quests to raid dungeons." He replied.

"We just completed a quest to clear out the monsters from The Red Forest." Freya interrupted. "And I'm sure If they give out quests for that, there might be a quest to clear the dungeon."

Thad suddenly opened his menu to a new message. He read it and instantly smiled. "It seems my friend here is right." He said, pointing his thumb my way.

"How do you know?" Milo asked.

Thad replied, "Because while we were in here talking about it, I had my guys out searching for the quest. And they found it."

"Called it." I said with a smile.

Milo looked angry and defeated…again. Freya couldn't wipe the shit eating grin off her face and Thad began to recite the message he got.

The message says, "You were right. The quest is from the leader of Medai Village. Details say it's going to be a raid sized battle with a raid boss at the end of the dungeon. Suggested Level 13 or higher."

"Sounds like we need a strategy." I said.

Milo looked at me with disgust and said, "There's no point in that. It isn't the floor boss." Then got up, collected his guild mates and walked towards the door. He stopped just short of it and turned around, "I'll be out trying to clear the game while you...inbreds are still in here strategizing." He said the last word like it tasted foul, turned and continued out the door.

"Such a sweet guy." Parks said, then turned to Freya. "I see why you like him so much."


	15. Chapter Fourteen

\- Chapter Fourteen -

The rest of the meeting went surprisingly smooth without Milo's excellent attitude. Thad's guild mate showed up with the quest details for "Medai's Dagger" and we started to come up with a plan. No, this isn't the floor boss. But if there are still quests out there like this, I can only imagine how hard the floor one boss will be. So we'll all need the experience.

Thor had about the same ideals as Milo so he opted out if the raid. That left us with Thad, Freya and their guilds.

The War Maidens consisted of 6 various class female players and 1 male tank. Dozer. He was also Freya's older brother and yes, he's actually built like a bulldozer.

Withered Iron has 12 tanks. Well, they technically have 10 tanks, an archer and Thad but they're all tanks to me.

Add in us 5 from Twin Gryphon Alliance and we have 24 players.

The plan is simple. We split up into 4 groups of 6 players, coordinate our attacks efficiently and try to defeat the boss. Each group will have at least 3 tanks so I think we'll be well enough protected.

After discussing when the raid will happen, we all stood and formed a circle. "I think we can make this happen." Thad said, putting an arm around Firefly who warmly accepted it.

I don't know if he was talking about the raid or hooking up with Firefly but everyone cheered.

We all exchanged friend requests and shook hands. Thad came over to Parks, Ronin and me. "I'll see you guys back over here in two days." He said, shaking our hands.

"Did you want that battle axe for the raid?" Ronin asked, "Cuz we're gonna need to get the materials for it today if so."

Thad looked surprised, "Holy shit! I forgot about that!" He turned to me, "What are you gonna need?"

"About 10 ingots of whatever material you want it made out of. I should have everything else." I replied.

He looked puzzled. "I thought it only required 6 ingots to build a battle axe?"

"You want it upgraded don't you?" I said with a smile and slapped him on the arm.

He laughed and nodded. "Where are you guys staying? I'll bring it to you this afternoon."

Firefly and Cherry walked up. "You're coming to the house this afternoon!?" Firefly asked, excitedly. "You can stay for dinner! Bring Gojira too!"

"Did someone say dinner?" Gojira asked, walking up behind them with Freya.

We all laughed. "We're renting the house just north of the hunting grounds. It has an anvil there so if you bring me the ingots this afternoon, I should have it done by dinner time. You can come too, Freya." I said.

"I'll be there." She said smiling.

A huge smile formed on Thad's face now. "We'll be there too. Just give me a few hours to get the stuff." He said, getting an even bigger smile from Firefly.

We all said our goodbyes and started to leave. Familiars aren't allowed in the guild building so when we walked out, Sampson was hopping up and down like a dog squawking his head off. "Whoa! Settle down buddy, we're heading home."

He nudged my hand with his beak, and walked by our sides the whole way back.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

\- Chapter Fifteen -

The gryphon household was busier than normal that evening. The previous day, I managed to get my hands on something I didn't think I'd ever see again. A wooden pipe!

I was walking through the market when the pipe caught my eye. I didn't care how much it costed, I absolutely had to have it. I picked it up for 40 col with a bag of…you guessed it…tobacco. The shop keeper informed me that I could apparently find the plant all over Aincrad and dry it myself.

So that evening, I sat outside with Ronin passing it back and forth. Firefly and Cherry were running through the house trying to figure out what to cook and Parks was at the market buying as much ale as he could carry.

Ronin was trying to blow smoke rings, failing miserably. I don't think the game mechanics allowed him to but I let him try. It was entertaining to say the least. He managed to puff out something that looked like a smoke bubble when I saw the silhouette of someone walking up to the house. I figured it was Parks until the smoke blew away and a gorgeous black haired woman walked though it.

"Where the hell did you two manage to get that?" She said, walking up to the porch.

"Well hello Miss Freya, I'm glad you could make it." I said. "Care for a pull?"

"I haven't had a cigarette in 3 years..." she replied, "but I think I will."

Ronin handed her the pipe and I pulled a chair up for her. She sat down and took a GIANT pull. Exhaling the cloud of smoke, she leaned back and I'm pretty sure she let out a small moan.

"It's that good, huh?" I asked. She gave me the same evil smile from earlier and took another pull.

We sat there for another 20 minutes passing the pipe and telling old stories when Parks finally made it back.

"Y'all start partying without me?" He said, opening his menu and dropping the 35 bottles of ale on the table. "I brought party favors."

Thad and Gojira walked up right behind him, "Hey! I didn't know it was that kinda party!" Thad yelled.

Firefly must have heard him because I heard squealing and a door swing open. "You made it!" She yelled and gave him a big hug.

"You have something for me?" I asked.

He smiled from ear to ear and started moving the ale to one side of the table. Then he opened his menu and dropped 10 ingots of Crimson Steel and 2 Onyx Gems on it. The ingots were almost glowing a blood red color, and the gems weren't just regular gems. They were Flawless Onyx's. The rarest gem on floor one. It's literally going to take every ounce of experience I have to make this battle axe, but it's going to be glorious.

I picked everything up off the table. "Follow me, big guy." I said to Thad. "Y'all can start on dinner too, Firefly. We should be done in time."

She winked at Thad and went inside with Ronin and Parks.

Thad, Gojira and Freya followed me to another building behind the house where the anvil was.

"Alright. Details. What kind of battle axe and what do you want to name it?" I asked.

Thad looked at Freya then back to me. "Double edged, two handed."

I grabbed the ingots and a hammer and started beating, leaving 4 off to the side.

It took about 5 minutes to combine the 6 ingots. Then I proceeded to grab the other 4 and beat harder this time for another solid 5 minutes.

The finished product? A 6 foot long red and black battle axe with black leather on the handle and the gems right in the middle of the blade. A gold filigree design protruded around the metal and leather handle and I'm now 100% positive I heard Freya moan this time.

"Holy shit..." He whispered.

Freya was biting her lip like she was sexually aroused by it.

"What do you want to name her?" I asked.

He looked at it for another 10 seconds before answering.

"Filigree." He said, smiling.

Freya smiled and nodded.

I typed it into the name slot and hit enter, finishing my new masterpiece.

"What do I owe you?" He asked.

"Tell you what…" I replied, "If this thing saves my life one day, that'll be all the payment I need."


	17. Chapter Sixteen

\- Chapter Sixteen -

We all couldn't fit around our dinner table inside, so we decided to eat outside. Cherry and Firefly made some kind of stew and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Freya brought over some familiar berries she got from a quest and Firefly made a pie from it, serving Thad first of course. It tasted EXACTLY like blueberry pie.

Sampson, being the winged "dog" he acts like, was sitting at my feet begging for food. I mean, I couldn't just let him beg so I picked out the biggest piece of meat in my bowl and gave it to him.

After eating, we all sat around a fire and talked about life before SAO. Sampson was laying at my feet, Cherry was cuddled up to Ronin, Thad and Firefly were lost in a whirlwind of hugs and kisses, and Parks and Gojira were putting all of the empty ale bottles in a tree and seeing who was the better archer.

Freya and I were sitting next to Ronin and Cherry reminiscing about where we used to work, our families, and really anything to get our minds off of the game we're currently trapped in.

Freya looked over at Thad and Firefly and smiled. Then looked back at me and said, "Thanks for inviting me."

"Oh, no problem." I replied. "You guys are welcome here anytime."

She smiled and nodded. That's when Ronin spoke up, "So what's the story with you and Milo?" He asked. "I noticed some animosity between you two."

Freya scoffed. "My guild was helping them with a quest yesterday. The boss turned out to be a lot harder than we thought, so instead of staying and helping us, he told his entire guild to retreat. Leaving us there to fight it alone." Her face changed from a scowl to relief as she spoke again. "Earlier that day I asked Dozer to go and do another quest while we helped Milo. He finished it a lot earlier than planned and came to help us...thank God he did."

"What a piece of shit!" Parks yelled. "Who the fuck leaves a guild full of chicks to die!?"

"A coward." Thad replied.

"I knew there was a reason why I didn't like him." I said.

Freya chuckled, "Yeah, I could tell. There's one guy in his guild that thinks the same way. I think his name is Callisto. I saw them arguing after that happened and he threatened to beat Milo's ass and quit."

"Sounds like we need to introduce ourselves." I joked.

"He's an assassin like Ronin, but he uses a bow." She replied.

"He's a fuckin stealth archer!? That lucky son of a bitch!" I yelled.

Everyone started laughing and Thad began to stand.

He gave Firefly another hug and walked over to me. "Thanks again, bro." He said shaking my hand.

"No problem. You guys want to get the guilds together tomorrow at the hunting grounds? Maybe figure out whose going to party with who?" I said to Freya and Thad.

"Sure, what time?" Freya replied.

"I can get everyone ready and over there for 10." Thad said.

"10 it is." I replied.

We all said our final goodbyes and the guild and I wobbled inside, still drunk on ale.


	18. Chapter Seventeen

\- Chapter Seventeen -

The mornings after being virtually drunk are awesome. Absolutely no hangover and the system basically forces you to like the taste of ale so it's a win/win.

We all gathered outside wearing our collective guild armor sets. I'm still not able to make armor for Sampson so he was sporting his leather armor I managed to buy from an NPC.

I'd also managed to upgrade everyone's weapon but Parks'. He bought a new bow on the third day and I wasn't high enough level to upgrade it yet.

It was only 9 o'clock but we figured we could do some grinding before everyone showed up, so we made our way to the hunting grounds. We also weren't the only ones with that idea.

It was only a 10 minute walk from our house, but less than five minutes after we got there Freya and her guild showed up.

I instantly recognized her walking in front holding her battle axe over her shoulder. She had one guy to her right, an archer. He was almost a spitting image of Ronin without our armor. To her left I guessed was her brother, Dozer. He wasn't much taller than her but he was built…well, like a dozer. She also had 4 women walking behind her, all wearing the same armor as her and her brother. The archer was the only one not wearing matching armor.

We approached them and introduced ourselves to her guild mates.

"This is the guy I was talking about yesterday," she pointed towards the archer. He shook everyone's hand and introduced himself. "Hey, I'm Callisto."

My eyes instantly opened wide. Parks chuckled and said, "Where's the gay ass Aeroguard outfit?"

Callisto laughed and replied, "Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I quit."

My eyes suddenly got even bigger. "Couldn't handle Milo's charm huh?" I asked with a wink.

"FUCK him and his wannabe archer boyfriends." He spat. "They're all mediocre shots at best."

Parks laughed and looked at me, "Told you."

Callisto continued, "Anyways, After I heard about what he pulled at the meeting yesterday, I had enough. I packed my shit and went to Freya's last night to talk about joining up with them and she told me about y'all."

Parks spoke up, "Well, let's see what you can do."

Callisto smiled, then vanished into his own shadow and reappeared into mine not a foot away, absolutely freaking Sampson out.

"Shadow Walk." I said to his face. He smiled again, then pulled his bow out and shot towards a tree. He then vanished again and reappeared in the shadow of the tree he just shot at. Then…HE CAUGHT THE FUCKING ARROW!

"You're in!" We all said in unison.

He smiled and walked back towards us sheathing his arrow. Directly behind him we saw 12 massive figures coming into view which made Firefly start grinning uncontrollably.

Thad held the battle axe I just made for him across his chest as he walked. It looked glorious.

"Hey babygirl." He said as he approached, looking straight at Firefly.

I'm pretty sure if you could blush in this game, her face would be as crimson as his axe. That actually made me really happy. She finally has someone to keep her mind somewhat off of missing her daughter.

I smiled and replied, "Stop, you're making me blush." And turned my head away in mock embarrassment.

We all laughed and I motioned for Callisto to come over. "Thad, this is our new guild member."

Thad interrupted, "Callisto! Finally joined a real guild, huh?"

They shook hands and Callisto nodded.

"Looks like we're all here, then." Thad said. "What do you guys have in mind?"


	19. Chapter Eighteen

\- Chapter Eighteen -

Freya took out a piece of paper and started going over the strategy. I've gotta say, I'm impressed. There were two parties of six, two parties of five and one party of three.

The three archers were in their own party led by Parks. They would do long distance attacks.

Each party had three tanks, because you can never have too many tanks.

Ronin and I led one party, Thad led one with the twins, Freya and Dozer led one and Gojira led one.

When you have that many tanks, you really don't need a strategy. You go in, they take the damage, you deal the damage. While one tank has the boss's aggro, the other two are healing while everyone else is dealing out damage. And the fact that almost everyone here could hold their own made me feel better about it.

The two bigger parties would focus on the boss while the two smaller ones would defend us from any other monsters or minions in our way.

Ronin spoke up, "I could take Callisto and Freya's assassin to the dungeon later today and see what we're getting ourselves into."

Callisto and the other assassin 'Raven' both nodded. Raven was the first female assassin I've seen so far that only used daggers and throwing knives. She had two fairly big, curved daggers on each hip and five throwing knives on a lanyard across her chest. Talk about badass.

Freya looked at Raven and nodded in approval.

Parks said, "I'll join you." And the three assassins looked at him baffled.

Callisto was the first to answer. "You know Shadow Walk?" He asked.

"No." Parks replied, "But I have 7 invisibility potions." He said smirking.

A few moments later, Parks, Ronin, Callisto and Raven were all huddled together going over their own strategy for later that day.

Freya walked over to where Thad, Dozer and I were talking with a smile on her face. "The girls want to know if they're invited to the next party you guys have."

I turned to look at her guild and was met with prying eyes, but they all seemed to look away once they saw me looking.

"Tell you what, if we complete this raid without losing anyone, you're all invited. Our treat." I replied. "That goes for your guild too, Thad."

They both smiled and Thad looked over at Firefly, "Ima have to stay with y'all then. I barely made it home last night."

"Light weight." Freya replied, punching him on the arm.

"He ain't no light weight." I replied, "He's just trying to get in them guts."

We all laughed, but he never denied it.


	20. Chapter Nineteen

\- Chapter Nineteen -

I managed to convince our assassin friends to let me come with them and wait outside of the dungeon just incase something happened. Of course, Thad and Freya HAD to tag along with Dozer and Gojira.

The nine of us managed to make it to the dungeon in just over an hour while our guilds trained/fucked off on the hunting grounds.

We were in the process of taking out a pack of dire wolves on the path just outside of the entrance when a man came stumbling out of it.

I thought he was stumbling from getting his ass kicked until I heard the singing. It looked like this guy managed to drunkenly sneak his way past every monster leading up to the dungeon. Either that, or he's one lucky mother fucker.

He turned around towards us and froze. I thought it was because he saw but I guess he just forgot the rest of the song he was singing, so he started another tune and turned to walk back towards the entrance.

He was a middle aged Mexican man in red and green armor with a matching katana on his side. He burped AND farted as we approached which I thought you couldn't do in this game. I was apparently wrong.

He heard us approaching and drew his sword.

It was pitiful. The guy tried turning around as fast as he could and fell. Hard. I'm pretty sure he lost some health when he hit the ground because he was out cold.

I approached him slowly as he started to awaken. "You ok, bro?" I asked.

"Yeah mang, ju ok?" He drunkenly asked.

"Am I ok? You're the one passed out on the ground." I replied.

He looked around for a second, then smiled. "Yeahhh, ju right ju right." He said.

I helped him up and the rest of the my party walked over. He introduced himself to everyone, "I'm Jorge. But ju can call me George." He laughed, opened his menu, selected another ale and drank it. All of it.

Freya looked at his screen name floating above his head and said, "It says your name is Cerveza."

Thad, Ronin and I chuckled when she said that. Apparently we were the only other people in the group that new cerveza meant beer in Spanish.

"Awe shit, I forgot." He paused, thought for a moment then continued, "Ju can call me...Cerveza." He laughed again, farted, laughed, then turned to Freya as if frozen in her presence. "Ju are de most beautiful woman…" he burped, "that I have every seen mi amor."

We all looked at her, waiting for a response. She just stood there, stone faced with her arms crossed. Then the smallest of smiles crept across her face and the tension was broke. Thats when we heard another howl.

George seemed to change into a different person. "I got this." He said. He was still stumbling, but it looked like he was determined. Walking back out onto the trail, he pointed his sword at two dire wolves standing 25 yards away. They must have sensed the impending fight because they launched themselves directly at him.

This is where things got stupid. And by stupid, I mean impossible.

George leaned his sword to the right, almost falling over. That also put him in the perfect position to activate a sword skill and deliver a sickening blow to the belly of the first wolf. It fell off to the side and instead of falling with it, Cerveza used the momentum of his previous attack to slice the other wolf across the neck. It all happened within fractions of a second and was almost unbelievable to watch.

He then managed to hit them both at the same time with another sword skill. They howled and vanished into blue shards.

"Holy shit." We said in unison.

He turned around as if nothing just happened, sheathed his sword and wobbled back over to us.

"Ju have to be careful around here mi amor." He said to Freya as he walked up. "But don't worry, George will protect ju." He smiled and gave her a wink.

That, for some reason made Parks and Gojira start laughing uncontrollably which in turn made the rest of us start laughing as well.

Thad grabbed George around the shoulder, still laughing. "You are crazy as hell, but I like you." He said, then went around and introduced us calling our names while pointing at each of us. He stopped on Freya, "And your love over there.." he pointed to her, "..is Freya."


	21. Chapter Twenty

\- Chapter Twenty -

Parks, Ronin, Callisto and Raven entered the dungeon while we kept George company.

"Are you with a guild, George?" Thad asked.

"Nah mang." He replied. "It's easier to just…how ju say... solo?" He was fishing for the right word.

Gojira replied, "Yeah, I used to think that too. Till I met big man over there." He pointed towards Thad.

George asked, "Are all of ju in a guild?"

"We're actually a part of three different guilds." I replied.

He looked at me confused, then nodded. "Scoping out da place, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah, our assassins are in there seeing what we're going to face when we raid it." Freya answered.

"Do you want to join us?" Thad asked. "We're raiding it tomorrow."

"Nah mang. I got somewhere to be." George replied with his head down. "But I'll be there for the floor boss."

No one questioned his answer. He then slowly stood up and stretched. "It's about time I head to mi casa." He said, shaking everyone's hand.

He stopped when he got to Freya and opened his arms with a big smile. A small smile formed on her face and she reluctantly gave him a hug.

"I'll see ju soon, mi amor." He said as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

She then surprised everyone, even George, when she grabbed the sides of his face and gave him a long passionate kiss on the lips.

"If you stay alive, there's more where that came from." She said as she turned away from him.

"Dios mío."


	22. Chapter Twenty One

\- Chapter Twenty One -

Ronin, Callisto and Raven came back out of the dungeon about an hour after George left.

"Where's Parks?" Asked Gojira.

He then appeared walking next to Ronin. "Right here big boy." He said with a smile.

"What's it look like in there?" I asked as they approached.

Callisto was the first to answer, "We're gonna have our hands full with this one."

Parks and Ronin nodded.

Raven then said, "Four rooms before the boss. Each of them have 15 to 20 monsters ranging from spiders to goblins. The last room before the boss is filled with archer skeletons and dire wolves. We couldn't get past them without being seen."

"No telling what's in that boss room." Thad replied. "You still think we can do it?"

"Fuck yeah." Parks assured, getting a round of nods from everyone.

We showed back up at the hunting grounds about an hour later to the sound of laughter coming from our guilds.

"Seems like they're getting along." Gojira said smiling.

One of Freya's guild mates, Warbride, was arm wrestling a tank from Thads guild. She was also winning.

She slammed his hand down and raised her arms in victory. That's when they all saw us approaching.

"Undefeated!" She yelled, then walked over to Raven and to our surprise, gave her a kiss. They were apparently a thing.

I got some raised eyebrows from Callisto and Parks and we all chuckled.

Firefly and Cherry both ran to their significant others and seemed to attach themselves to their hips.

It was actually pretty hilarious to see these perfectly identical twins running towards two completely different people. Ronin is a 5 and a half foot tall Mexican assassin. Thad is a 6 and a half foot tall black guy wielding a battle axe. I guess the only thing the twins differ in is their preference in guys.

"What time do you guys want to meet tomorrow for the raid?" Thad asked.

"We can meet here, same time." Freya answered, and we all agreed.

"Well, we have a lot of hunting to do to get all of the food we'll need for tomorrow." I sighed.

Thad smiled and said, "Don't worry man, we'll bring the food."

"And we'll bring the booze." Freya interrupted. "You guys just get your place ready for a party."

We all laughed, "I'll have a few party favors for everyone when we get back then." I replied.


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

\- Chapter Twenty Two -

That night I went to the forge and started working. The name of the quest is 'Medai's Dagger' so I'm planning on making everyone in the raid a custom made dagger. It's going to be made exactly like my Gryphon long sword. Black iron blade, gold outlines and a gryphon stamped on the handle. Simply named, "Medai". No rubies because that shit's expensive.

I love how the sleep mechanics work in this game too. I didn't finish the daggers until 6 that next morning. After one hour of sleep, I felt well rested and ready to kick some dungeon ass.

Firefly and Cherry woke up and made breakfast for everyone. Callisto woke up in a great mood, probably because of the new company he had and Parks and Ronin were already outside going over sword skills.

"Lock and load in one hour." Parks said coming into the kitchen to get some breakfast.

"What were you working on last night?" Asked Cherry.

"That's gonna be a surprise for everyone." I answered with a smirk. I got a few questioning stares but they weren't really worried about it. This was going to be our first multiple guild raid so we were all a little anxious.

I equipped my armor, grabbed my long sword, strapped my new throwing hatchets to my belt and walked out to get Sampson.

Ronin, Parks and Callisto were all ready to go. Sampson was laying on the front porch in what was probably the same position he fell asleep in.

"You ready to fuck up a dungeon?" I asked him.

His head shot up. I'm telling you, this bird loves to fight. If he's not sleeping, he's fuckin up monsters.

He jumped up and started running around.

"I think he's ready." Parks said.

The twins came outside and we started making our way to the hunting grounds.

This time, we weren't the first ones there. Apparently Thad and Freya's guilds were more anxious than we were.

They were already split up into the predetermined groups strategizing when we walked up.

Ronin and I went to our party, Parks and Callisto met up with Freya's archer, the twins were with Thad's party, and Freya and Gojira had the two smaller parties.

After a few minutes, we all started to make our way to the dungeon.

Thad was leading the group, hand in hand with Firefly. "If you get into any trouble, I'll be right there babygirl." He told her.

"She can handle herself." Fired back Cherry.

"Oh I never said she couldn't." Thad replied, "But unexpected shit always seems to happen in a raid."

"I'd be more worried about him doing something stupid." Gojira interrupted. "I've been gaming with Thad for years and he always manages to get himself into trouble."

"Yeah, but did anyone ever die on my watch!?" Thad questioned.

Gojira shook his head and smiled.

Sampson let out a scream a few dozen yards ahead letting us know we were getting close.

"Let's kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy." I yelled, quoting one of my favorite movies (Independence Day).

That seemed to quicken everyone's pace. I honestly don't think anyone there was genuinely nervous. From what I've gathered hanging out with everyone, they all seemed to enjoy the fight.

Sampson came flying back down and landed next to me as we started the final run up the trail towards the dungeon.

A pack of five dire wolves stood at the entrance almost as if guarding it. They'd soon learn that 25 eager warriors were a little too much to handle.

Ronin and Raven both Shadow Walked to the nearest wolf and stuck their blades deep into its sides. It vanished instantly into blue shards.

At the same time, Parks fired a plethora of arrows into another, taking it out.

By now, the rest of the group was closing in on the other 3.

Thad brought 'Filigree' down on the back of the head of one wolf, shattering it into shards while the twins seemed to blur into themselves and simultaneously dissect the last 2 remaining.

"Hot damn, babygirl!" Thad yelled with a fist in the air.

The twins both smiled and fell back into line, Firefly getting a spank on the ass from Thad.

Then, we entered the dungeon.


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

\- Chapter Twenty Three -

The first room in the dungeon was about 60 yards down a rocky hallway. It opened up to a massive 50 yard by 50 yard room at least 20 yards tall. Sampson stayed at my side until I told him to attack but you could tell he smelt blood.

There were 11 goblins spread out in a half circle around 3 tarantula looking spiders. While the goblins didn't look as intimidating, the spiders were at least 4 foot tall and had giant dripping fangs protruding from their mouths.

As soon as the first party member stepped foot in the room, torches that were set on the walls fluttered to life and the monsters instantly started looking for prey.

"Sampson, attack!" I yelled. He instantly sprang into action.

The spiders seemed to have more sense than the goblins because they stayed back.

The goblins? They tried attacking. Key word being tried.

Sampson tackled one to the floor, sinking his beak into its neck.

That left 10 ignorant goblins running at full speed straight for us. They all had small fat knives except one with some sort of battle axe.

"This is too easy." Gojira sighed.

His and Freya's parties were going to take care of the rooms leading to the boss. Then, my and Thad's parties were going to rotate fighting the boss while theirs took out anything else in the room. Parks' party was support fire for both.

Unfortunately, Gojira underestimated the goblins. Fortunately, he had Warbride in his party.

After he missed the first axe wielding goblin with a shield smash, she landed a 3 hit combo on it shattering it into shards. The next three tried rushing her but the other tanks were already in position. They seemed be to playing goblin ping pong, bouncing them back and forth between their shields.

Warbride, seeing that they had those three covered, went to help Gojira with the two that had him pinned down.

Parks, Callisto and Freya's archer Ivy were raining fire down on the remaining four goblins while Freya's party started working on the spiders.

Within minutes, the room was clear and you could hear two level up notification bells. Warbride and Raven. They both smiled and winked at each other seductively.

"Leave that for the bedroom." Freya demanded, then we got in position for the second room.


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

\- Chapter Twenty Four -

The second and third rooms consisted of mainly goblins with one giant spider. They were both cleared the same way. Freya's party took out the spider, Gojira's party and the archers took out the goblins.

But, the fourth room was where we started having trouble. As soon as the first person set foot inside, the arrows started flying.

All 12 tanks formed a crescent around the entrance, blocking the oncoming arrows with their shields.

I told Sampson to stay back. Those skeleton archers would tare his ass up before he could even get to them. He took that as incentive to go after one of the dire wolves that got a little too close.

Now, these weren't like those regular dire wolves we saw outside the dungeon. They were easily 2 feet taller than Sampson, but I don't think he cared. There were 4 wolves in the room, but one unlucky bastard got a little too close to the shields and Sampson attacked. Luckily, they fell and rolled out of the line of sight of the skeletons.

That's when our archers took aim. Every 2 or 3 seconds, Gojira would slightly move his shield just enough to where Parks was able to send 3 arrows back at the skeletons.

Ivy and Callisto saw what they were doing and applied a similar method.

About a minute later, Sampson was done with his kill, leveled up, grew about 3 inches then tackled another wolf. That left 6 skeletons and 2 wolves between us and the boss.

Parks, Callisto and Ivy (now under less return fire) were able to take out the remaining archers almost instantly. That apparently pissed the wolves off because their eyes started glowing blue and they grew another foot taller.

Sampson screamed in pain as the now bigger wolf bit down on his back.

Thad and I instantly charged it.

As soon as the wolf saw us approaching, it threw Sampson towards us and leapt over to join the other 2.

I knelt down next to him with a healing potion in hand. "You almost had him." I joked as the potion took effect. He looked up at me with nothing but rage in his eyes and screamed again. This time, not in pain.

He flew straight up so fast, all you could see was a brown and white blur of feathers and claws.

The 3 wolves then charged us.

A loud whistle shot across the room, then something collided with the leading wolf.

"New Skill" shown in the upper left of my vision as I saw Sampson standing in the middle of falling blue shards between the other 2 wolves.

They both tried jumping on him but he was up again in a blur. Parks and Callisto took this chance to riddle one of the wolves with arrows as the whistling started again.

Both wolves exploded into shards, leaving only a leather armored Gryphon standing in the midst.

"What the fuck was that, Zeus?" Thad interrogated.

"Fury Wind." I replied, reading the details from my menu. "He got it when he leveled up after that first wolf."

Sampson walked back up to the group and sat next to me.

"Looks like he grew some too." Gojira added.


	26. Chapter Twenty Five

\- Chapter Twenty Five -

I asked everyone to gather around before we hit the boss room. With Sampson's new skill, we now have another weapon at our disposal.

"Everyone take health potions and get back up to 100 percent."

Freya agreed then said, "We can definitely use that new skill in the boss room."

"I'm thinking he can help you guys with whatever else is in the room." I replied. "And HOPEFULLY…we won't encounter more archer skeletons."

The good news is there weren't more archer skeletons. The bad news? The boss room was twice as big as the others, and there were a dozen dire wolves staring straight at us as if they expected visitors.

At the far end of the room stood a giant boulder, easily 10 meters high. White hair seemed to protrude from behind it. The owner of the white hair? You guessed it. A massive white wolf. It didn't have blue eyes like the rest of them, but it towered over everything in the room. It's canine teeth seemed to be made from some type of metal. It stood both front legs up on the boulder and bared its metallic fangs at us with a snarl. Floating next to its head showed 2 green health bars and its name, "Steelfang".

"Holy fuck." Parks said as he took aim.

The room erupted into battle. Mine and Thad's parties took point as we charged towards the boss. Freya's party was stopped by 5 wolves about half way down followed by Gojira's party a few steps later with another 5.

Parks, Callisto and Ivy took higher positions along some rocks closer to the walls and started raining fire down on the boss.

Sampson, having already vanished from my side when we entered, came whistling down at one of the last 2 wolves between us and the boss.

"Sampson, up!" I yelled, right as the blue shards faded and the last wolf lunged for him.

He seemed to vanish before it had the chance to attack, so we charged it.

Freya and Gojira's parties looked like they were having trouble keeping theirs at bay, which was NOT a good sign. They only managed to kill two.

I yelled for Sampson to go help them while we took care of the last one on our end before the boss.

Ronin turned to us and yelled, "I got this!"

We all gave him a puzzled look and stopped. He then vanished, appeared in the wolf's shadow, sliced across its neck twice then reappeared next to me. All in under a second.

Normally, that would've killed it. It didn't. It howled and jumped straight for Thad. THAT was its last mistake. Firefly and Cherry dissected it before it even touched the ground. Poof.

The arrows from Parks and company were apparently not doing shit to the boss because it's health hadn't even dropped a tenth. I turned around and motioned for them to start helping Freya and Gojira. That's when it charged.

It struck us with immense power. Ronin and the twins must have flown 30 feet before landing. The rest of us slid back on our asses almost as far. No one had time to get up. Well, no one but Thad.

"Here it comes!" Thad yelled, being the only one not caught off guard.

He charged it and swung Filigree as hard as he could, hitting it square across the nose. Thank GOD he landed the hit. That gave us just enough time to stand and regroup.

It's health bar barely moved.

By this time, Freya, Parks and Gojira's parties managed to take out another 4 wolves.

That loud, familiar whistle started ringing in our ears and another wolf vanished.

I thought things were starting to look up because they only had 3 wolves left. I was wrong. As soon as the shards of the wolf Sampson killed had vanished, the bosses eyes started glowing red along with the 3 remaining wolves.

Then, hell opened its doors. The remaining 3 wolves, just like in the last room, started growing.

After about 5 seconds, they were the same exact size as the boss.

Four...MASSIVE wolves...stared back at us.

We were frozen. Just moments ago, one hit from the boss sent everyone almost literally flying back. Now there were four of them.

Thad seemed to be the first to snap out of it. "Riggs!" He yelled, waving to one of the tanks in my party. Riggs nodded and they both took off running towards the boss.

Sampson landed at my feet and looked at me for directions. "Kill!" I screamed as I pointed towards the boss. He vanished into the air as Thad and Riggs collided with it.

Gojira and Warbride were doing all they could to hold off the wolf that had them pinned down. Freya, Dozer and the other two tanks, Ivan and Ironclad, were each holding off the last two.

Ronin and Raven were Shadow Walking from wolf to wolf trying to do as much damage as possible without taking any damage themselves.

It was an absolute warzone. What the fuck was Kayaba thinking putting a battle like this on floor 1? Is there actually a way out of this? Should we retreat? All of this was going through my head as we literally fought for their lives.

Sampson was finally able to hit the boss with a Fury Wind that sent it's remaining health bar into the yellow.

I saw an opening and took it. Thad was mainly aiming for its face because he was really the only one tall enough. I noticed every time he'd swing at it now, it would flinch to the other side before he could hit it.

I yelled for him to hit it again. Then, I shot to the opposite side and plunged my long sword deep into the side of its face as soon as it flinched my way.

Blood red shards started falling away as I took out my blade. It howled in pain as it's health bar finally dropped into the red.

Then, it jumped clean over all of us and landed on top of the boulder it came from. That's when I saw it. A white and blue dagger sticking out of the top of the boulder. The wolf howled again, louder this time, and another dozen smaller wolves appeared from behind the boulder running straight for us.

Parks' party instantly saw the new wolves and started to fire. They managed to take one out before the first one reached us, then the door to the entrance of the room swung open.

"TO VALHALLA!!!!" Thor screamed, his hammer raised above his head and his entire guild entering the room.


	27. Chapter Twenty Six

\- Chapter Twenty Six -

We all must have gotten a morale boost from seeing Thor because everyone began kicking ass after his guild joined the fight.

As welcoming as it was, my attention was drawn to a pitch black creature following one of Thor's guild mates. As soon as it saw Sampson, it shot up into the air and they seemed to start circling one of the wolves.

"Another gryphon!?" I thought excitedly.

I was right. The sound of dual whistles filled the room, then both gryphons slammed into the wolf they were circling. It instantly vanished leaving only the shadows of the birds as they flew back up in unison.

That freed up A LOT of man power to focus on the last 3 giant wolves while we started taking out the remaining 11 that just spawned.

Thor had 3 archers in his guild and they quickly joined Parks, Callisto and Ivy giving us much needed suppressive fire.

Within a few minutes we were down to 4 unevolved wolves and the floor boss remaining. They all tried the whole "glowing blue eyes and growing" trick again but Freya and Gojira's parties were on top of them before they even grew an inch.

Thad's and my parties along with Thor and his guild went after the boss. All 6 archers opened up a can of whoop ass on it while our swords, battle axes and war hammers crashed into it all at once.

Both gryphons clamped down on its back and with one final blow from Thad, it finally exploded into those beautiful blue shards.

"Congratulations!" Was shown spread across the room. Everyone went wild, cheering and high fiving. Level up notifications showed on everyone's status bars which only intensified the cheering.

I ran over to Thor who was in the middle of high fiving one of his guild mates and bear hugged him.

We both fell to the ground laughing. Thad walked over and effortlessly picked us both up. Patting Thor on the back he said, "Didn't think I'd ever be this happy to see you."

Thor smiled and put a hand on my shoulder, "Well I couldn't just let my new friends go and die on me."

Everyone laughed. Ronin walked up and put an arm around Thad. "So, what was the last attack bonus? You got it right?" He asked with a smile.

I remembered the dagger I saw sticking out of the boulder and turned to check if it were still there.

"Medai's Dagger." Thad said, pulling it out of his inventory.

It was a blue and silver dagger with absolutely amazing stats. A white wolf was engraved into the blade and I'm fairly certain it was Steelfang. Thad studied it for a minute, then 2 message notification sounds dinged. One came from Thor, and the other from Callisto.

They both opened and read the messages. Suddenly, all happiness drained from their faces. Callisto looked at Thor, "Flynn?" He asked. Thor nodded.

I could see the muscles in Thor's arm tense as he gripped his hammer in anger.

"What the fuck happened?" I asked them both. "And who's Flynn?"

Callisto was the first to answer, "Flynn is a member of Aeroguard. Milo's older brother."

"Ok, so he's another asshole. So what?" I spat.

"He's nothing like his brother." Thor replied. "Apparently the Blue Diamond guild found the boss room earlier this morning."

Callisto interrupted, "Flynn says Milo convinced them to start it without us. Probably because Blue Diamond recruits almost anyone. They have over 40 members already."

Everyone gasped.

"You can't be fucking serious." Thad said, raising his hands in protest. "And they're starting the raid without a strategy, why? Because Milo has a personal vendetta against us?"

"Probably so." Thor replied.

"That fucking fuck needs his ass whooped!" Yelled Parks and everyone yelled in agreement.

"We can't just let them go in there and die." I said, raising my voice over the uproar.

Everyone went silent. I got a few nods of agreement from Thad and Callisto. Thor on the other hand was still furious.

"He told me they wouldn't raid the floor boss without us." He said, looking at me with rage.

"He probably found out you came to help us." Ronin replied. "Either that or he's just a lying piece of shit. And I'm leaning more towards that."

I turned to Thor and said, "Sounds like you have some questions that need answering."

He looked at me for a few more seconds and nodded then turned to his guild, "Everyone get ready to move out. We have somewhere to be." He then turned back to us and asked, "Y'all coming?"


	28. Chapter Twenty Seven

\- Chapter Twenty Seven -

Walking out of the dungeon, Callisto was the first to speak up, "Flynn said the boss room is at the top of the north tower."

"How far away is that?" Asked Freya.

"About an hour walk." Replied Thor. "We'll get there about 10 minutes after them."

"A lot can happen in 10 minutes." Said Thad. "You think we'll make it?"

Everyone shook their heads in disagreement. Parks laughed, "I've got half a mind to go home. Fuck those guys."

"They WILL lose people." I replied. Turning to Thor and Callisto I ask, "Did either of y'all get a map from Flynn?"

"Yeah, I'll send it to you." Thor said, opening his menu.

The next few minutes of walking were spent discussing what to do when we arrive. The problem is, we don't know what the situation will be when we get there. Will they have it handled? Will they all die before we reach them?

This puts a major hole in our plans. We reluctantly decide to leave the strategizing for after we know the situation.

About halfway there we hear someone calling from further up the path.

"Hey mang! Ju in a hurry?"

We all turn to see George approaching. "Looks like ju won the raid." He said with a smile.

After seeing a few scowls still emanating on some of our faces, the smile instantly left his face.

"George!" Thad yelled. "You got any plans?"

He looked around frantically for a moment until his eyes met Freya's.

"Nah mang, what ju have in mind?" He replied, still holding eye contact with her.

Thad replied, "They found the boss room."

George broke eye contact with Freya and spun to face Thad. "Ju serious!?" He yelled.

"Yeah, and the fucks are starting without us!" Parks yelled back.

George's face turned into a scowl. He looked back at Freya again and said, "I think I'll tag along."


	29. Chapter Twenty Eight

\- Chapter Twenty Eight -

We're now only a few hundred yards from the entrance and we can already hear the battle. Screams filled the air around us and like madmen, we rushed towards the sounds of pain and death.

About 20 yards from the entrance, we saw 10 figures rushing out of the doors. Milo, of all people, came running out of the dungeon along side 8 or 9 members of Blue Diamond. Fear and unprecedented horror plastered on their faces.

"Again!?" Shouted Freya, as she thought back to when he left her and her guild for dead. But no one thought he'd abandon his own guild, much less his own brother.

It's apparently much worse than we thought. Blue Diamond's guild is now less than half its size, and it looked like Aeroguard had already lost two archers on top of losing Milo.

We entered the room and immediately separated into our earlier groups. Parks led the archers over to help Aeroguard and you could immediately see the relief on Flynn's face when they showed up.

Mine and Thad's groups are going to take on the boss while Freya and Gojira's groups help Valhalla and the rest of Blue Diamond take on its sentinels.

I read in the player manual about the boss for this floor on the walk here. Illfang the Kobold Lord.

It's easily three meters tall, muscular, covered in red fur with crimson eyes. It uses a large bone axe and a leather shield. Behind its waist it carries a meter and a half long nōdachi weapon. But that's not even the worst part... it has "Ruin Kobold Sentinelminions". Hundreds of em.

"They keep respawning!" Flynn yelled as he shot another minion through the eye.

Parks looked over to an opening in the wall where all of the minions were coming from. Every time a minion died, one came running through the opening.

"We need to push them back to that opening and hold them there!" He yelled, pointing towards it. "That's where they're respawning!"

Across the room and what seemed like a mile away, mine and Thad's groups met up with a tank from Blue Diamond as he was fighting off three minions.

I came up behind one, slashing it across the back just as Sampson lunged and sunk his beak into the dying minions neck. It instantly shattered into blue shards.

The Blue Diamond tank had a terrified look on his face as he and Thad took out the other two.

"They won't stop spawning! I've killed at least 50!" He yelled as he tried to catch his breath.

"Our archers will hold them." Thad replied, "We need to worry about the boss."

"Good luck! No one but Banshee can get close enough to it without dying!" The tank replied, hysterical.

As if summoned, a short Asian female assassin appeared in the tank's shadow. "It's hopeless!" She yelled, panting. "I can't do enough damage to it!"

Ronin and I looked at each other and nodded. "What if you had 3 more assassin's?" I asked her.

Just then, 7 more minions charged us as Illfang shot into the air from across the room and landed within 15 feet from me. It's roar was bone chattering.

I raised my sword just in time to block a massive incoming hit. The blow was insane and almost took me completely off my feet. I hadn't fought ANYTHING this strong in the game thus far.

Ronin grabbed Banshee and they disappeared into the shadows, hopefully going to get some help.

Thad came around and connected a sickening blow to it's midsection which got it to jump away, giving me just enough time to recover.


	30. Chapter Twenty Nine

\- Chapter Twenty Nine -

The twins were dissecting the minions around us when Banshee, Ronin, Callisto and Raven appeared.

Sampson also just finished destroying another minion and rushed to stand by my side.

I pointed at Illfang and yelled, "Fury Wind!" to Sampson. He instantly shot into the air.

Ronin turned to the other three assassins, "On my mark!" He yelled, and they all crouched.

Two ear-splitting whistles filled the room as Sampson and the other gryphon from Thor's guild collided with Illfang, knocking it back another 10 yards.

I turned towards the guilds that were handling the minions and locked eyes with the other beast tamer. I flashed him a smile and saw they finally got the minions cornered just outside the opening where they were respawning. It was an intense battle, but we could finally focus on the boss wholeheartedly.

"Now!" Ronin yelled.

All four assassins vanished and started Shadow Walking from Illfang back to us, delivering vicious blows.

Every time it would try to attack or evade, one of the assassins would appear, strike then dissappear before it could retaliate.

That technique seemed to work well until Illfang's health dropped into the red. It threw the axe it was holding at the nearest tank, sending him flying into the wall. Then, it jumped up and seemed to stick to one of the pillars in the middle of the room.

Thad and my groups rushed to help the fallen tank as a massive roar filled the room. Illfang dropped from the pillar and pulled its nōdachi from its back.

…then landed directly infront of Cherry and Firefly...

Thad and Ronin let out a screams so loud that Parks could hear them from the other side of the massive room.

"NO!!!!" They yelled in unison.

Illfang swung the massive weapon at the twins, and hit…nothing. They both ducked to either side of the beast so fast I almost didn't catch it. Thad was already in motion running straight towards it, Filigree swinging out to his right side like he was hitting a home run and connected with Illfang's thigh. Before it could even defend itself, Ronin and the assassins moved in at the same time Cherry and Firefly sliced up straight through its back.

But that still wasn't enough! Whistles filled the air around us as the gryphons came in for another Fury Wind. Thad and I were doing everything in our power to inflict as much damage as possible while the assassins appeared and vanished dealing their own damage. Cherry and Firefly stayed behind it slicing up every inch of it's back.

Illfang let out another roar and swung it's nōdachi straight at Thad but he was ready. He blocked it and seemed to hold his ground, not losing an inch to the 10 ft tall beast. That left my side completely open for attack! I jumped and swung my sword as hard as I could down on the back of its neck at the same time Sampson and the other gryphon connected with Fury Wind.

BOOM!


End file.
